XML, or eXtensible Markup Language v. 1.0 was adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on Feb. 10, 1998. XML provides a structured syntax for data exchange. XML is a markup language, like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Most markup languages, like HTML, are fixed markup languages. That is, the fixed markup languages, such as HTML, include a set of fixed tags for crafting a document. On the other hand, XML does not define a fixed set of tags, but rather, only defines a syntax or structured format through which users can define their own set of XML tags. There presently are a number of XML based languages which define their own set of tags using the XML syntax. XML has the further advantage because the actual data is separated from the presentation of the data, in contrast with HTML which combines these two items. As a result, XML has the potential to become a standard by which most computers, servers and applications will exchange or communicate data.
Due to the wide variety of data formats that are in use, including different XML languages, there is a need for a transformer to transform between the varying formats. Presently, transcoders or transformers are available to perform transformations. For example, IBM's Transcoding Technology and Microsoft's BizTalk BizMapper perform some format translation functions and typically reside on a server, such as an application server. However, the web server or the application server are typically overloaded with a variety of tasks. Taking on the extra job of transforming simply compounds this problem. Moreover, the functionality of these translators is quite limited.